If you've been keeping up with the GOP debates, you've likely heard of Fox News Anchor Megyn Kelly. During the first debate in August 2015, Kelly questioned Donald Trump about sexist comments he made and about his genuine affiliation to the Republican Party. After Trump exploded on Twitter and unfairly attacked Kelly for her job as a moderator, Kelly gained popularity among the media and political pundits. As she continues to rise as a media star, it is interesting to think about her family life and her early influences. Specifically, who was Megyn Kelly's father?

Past coverage of the favorite Fox News anchor revealed that Kelly's father, Edward Kelly, was part of Kelly's motivation to relentlessly pursuing a career in news. However, Kelly wasn't influenced by her father because he pursued a similar career; rather, Kelly was influenced by her father Edward's unexpected death when she was just 15 years old. Edward and Kelly's mother, Linda, raised Kelly in Delmar, a suburb of upstate New York just outside of Albany. In an interview with Elle, Kelly talked about her average, small-town childhood where she attended public schools and participated in sports. Her normal life suddenly changed completely during sophomore year of high school when her father passed away from a heart attack just before Christmas.

It was nothing expected — not like he had been sick. He was fine. And then, 10 days before Christmas, he died of a heart attack in our house. I mean, the Christmas tree was there and everything.

There are few public details about Edward Kelly, but here's what we know about Megyn Kelly's father:

He Was A Professor

JACQUES DEMARTHON/AFP/Getty Images

In her interview with Elle, Kelly remembered her father as "an intellectual with a huge laugh." Remembering Edward as an intellectual seems fitting, as he was an associate professor of education at the State University of New York at Albany. Edward taught at the School of Education, where he primarily focused on the field of evaluation. Before his time at SUNY Albany, Edward worked at the Center for Instructional Development at Syracuse University. During his time there, Edward served as the associate director for research and evaluation, where he narrowed his research on student evaluations, the role of metaphors in evaluations, and evaluation methodology.

He Was A Published Author

PATRIK STOLLARZ/AFP/Getty Images

With a deep interest in evaluations research, it only makes sense that Edward Kelly was a published author. In October 1980, Edward published a three-page article to the Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis journal. In collaboration with American Educational Research Association, Edward explored, analyzed, and criticized the 1977 book "The Logic of Evaluative Argument" by Ernest House. Edward's journal submission, titled "Evaluation as Persuasion: An Argument," confidently takes on House's logic in his book about, well, logic. Edward opens the article with a strong assertion of his qualms with his fellow scholar's findings.

To say that evaluation is an activity that seeks to persuade is true, but the premises that constitute House's arguments are, at times, incomplete while others appear suppressed. The problem centers on what House means by persuasion. My purpose is to clarify the relationships between evaluation as persuasion and the practical argument.

He Has A Conference In His Honor

Mark Davis/Getty Images Entertainment/Getty Images

The Edward F. Kelly Evaluation Conference occurs annually and is dedicated in memory of Edward. The conference originated at SUNY Albany in 1987 after Edward's death. During his time at SUNY Albany, Edward founded the Evaluation Consortium, which provides high quality evaluation services and keeps its members engaged in evaluation research trends. Graduate students originally created the Evaluation Conference with the goal of giving other graduate students in the evaluations department a chance to present their original work. The annual conference has been around for over 25 years and it continues to push the intellectual and academic boundaries that Edward Kelly was known for in his work.